Townsend v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 federal appellate · 106 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 111 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “(1) [the expert] must be qualified in an area of “scientific, technical or other specialized knowledge” (the qualification requirement); (2) his or her specialized knowledge must “assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue” (the assistance requirement); and (3) his or her testimony must be limited “to matters within the scope of [his or her specialized] knowledge” (the limited scope requirement).”

   9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. White v. State · Robins v. State

2. “"[I]t is apparent that expert testimony concerning post-traumatic stress disorder patterns in sexually abused children satisfied the requirement of the evidence code in providing jury enlightenment on a critical and relevant subject of an esoteric nature. Similarly, it was proper for the State's expert to express an opinion on the issue of whether the child had, in fact, been sexually assaulted or abused. Such an opinion, although embracing an ultimate issue, represents both the peculiar expertise and consummate purpose of an expert's analysis. ... "Other jurisdictions have also held expert testimony admissible on the issue of whether a child-victim has been sexually abused and whether the victim has reacted in ways that are consistent with the behavior of other sexually abused children. See, e.g., State v. Meyers, 359 N.W.2d 604 (Minn. 1984); State v. Middleton, 294 Or. 427 , 657 P.2d 1215 (1983)." 734 P.2d at 708 (emphasis added).”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Theil (Brett) Vs. State · Montoya v. State

3. “"Here, the expert not only opined that the child had been sexually assaulted, but proceeded to identify Townsend as the perpetrator. This was improper testimony as it transcended the test of jury enlightenment and entered the realm of fact-finding that was well within the capacity of a lay jury. While it may have been appropriate for the expert to provide clinical testimony concerning familial sex abuse in general, it was improper to identify the victim's father as the specific source of the assault." 734 P.2d at 708 (emphasis added).”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. JCE · State v. Hester